Addiction Transitions

Many times people find themselves at a crossroad in their life with various forms of addiction. This may look different for each person but all of these crossroads involve a time in their life when they decide they want help. Wilderness Scout Ministries directs these people to several faith-based addiction rehabilitation centers in our area with whom we have experience. After a person makes that decision we want to quickly get them out of the environment that helped contribute to the addiction and into one of these intensive rehabilitation programs.

However, the addiction crisis in America  is so great that most times there is as much as a 3 to 4 week waiting period before a space opens up for someone. Wilderness Scout Ministries offers a safe place for them to stay while waiting on a space in the rehab program to become available. This safe place can be as simple as a room and food support during the waiting period. Once they get into the rehabilitation program, that space is then available for another man in need.

This safe transition space is also there for those exiting the rehabilitation program. Many times, after successfully completing treatment, these men have no safe place to return to other than the destructive environment from which they left; they often have no job, no money and no support system. Wilderness Scout Ministries offers a Jobs Program (see details below) which offers these men a highly structured, supervised, job immediately earning money to begin the process of re-entering mainstream life. The transition housing allows them to stay with rent provided and/or subsidized until they can afford a safe place of their own.

Combat Deployment and First Responder Trauma Transitions

Sadly, many of our combat veterans can face a host of challenging transition points after returning home from their combat deployments.

Oftentimes there may be physical injuries which, while necessary, have been  treated with large volumes of pain medications. These pain medications, combined with wrong choices can lead to medication addictions which must then be treated.

While those men are helped into addiction programs (see above) other returning veterans just need time to ease back into the mainstream of “normal” life after deployment.

Wilderness Scout Ministries offers a safe place, away from the noise and distractions of this world where they can slowly adjust to the radically different demands of a civilian life in a variety of ways. They can spend time in our Jobs Program learning new “civilian” skills and gradually adjusting to life as a member of a civilian work force. Or veterans can take advantage of our Wilderness Program and get out into nature by camping and backpacking their way into civilian life. This adjustment should not be underestimated. Many returning veterans speak of the major adjustment it takes to join the unstructured workforce of today.

Like returning veterans, many First Responders face traumas in their job that rock their world. Police, EMT, and Firefighters see things that no human is built to see on a continual basis without being affected. They experience trauma on the job, sometimes daily, that can have damaging effects on both them and their families. The 13 week Firstline Recovery courses provide a faith-based, peer led, course that delivers lasting healing. Men can sometimes find themselves at the end of their rope – at a point in their life where they are utterly broken and hopeless. Our ministry offers these men the support of other men who will stand in the gap for them – who will stand by them as they journey through their particular valley in life.

The 12 week Reboot Combat Recovery course for veterans and spouses provides the same PTSD healing for the military community. Before and after these courses we find men needing time to process and get away from the distractions of their normal world. We provide them with that space in our Transition Ministry.

Job Program

Men are too often defined by their job. We are always asked… “So… what do you do?” In building Men of God we are helping men understand that this question is not the one that defines them. The important question is who do you serve?

Our Jobs Program was built out of the necessity to minister to the needs of men in transition. Those transitioning from the military into civilian life may need new skills to interact with non-military managers and in unstructured workplaces. They may need to trade in skills in handling weapons with skills in handling power tools. Our Jobs Programs gives them an immediate job earning a slightly above minimum wage where they can learn new skills, beef up a resume, build interviewing skills, and search for their place in a civilian workforce.

For our men transitioning from addictions the Jobs Program gives them a way to earn money to begin rebuilding their life. Many of these men may have a criminal record making a new job difficult to find. Some come to us with very little life skills. In our program we teach them how to open a bank account, make a budget to live on, get a driver’s license, apply for a job, interview, create a resume, etc. Many things that most of us take for granted, were stolen from these men by the addictions they have now overcome.

In our Jobs Program we take on small construction projects which allows us to employ non-skilled labor alongside skilled labor. Men are trained in not just the skills of the job but also what it looks like to be a Man of God in the workforce. They learn “that whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not your human masters” (Colossians 3:23). They learn ethical behavior working alongside other Christian men where they are held accountable for their actions, sometimes for the first times in the lives. We help them find their passion where their chosen work field can be their mission field, where God’s will reigns.

This Jobs Program helps the ministry financially. It provides the means for our ministry to be as self-sustaining as possible. One hundred percent (100%) of all funds the Jobs Program provides goes back into the ministry.

If you have a small construction project you would like us to quote please click here.